The main focus of chapter two in Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, is that it is imperative that teachers take an interest in the students. They need to understand where they are coming from, where they are going, and how they can get there. Teachers need to know background about students and understand what their home life is like. They need to know what interest’s students have and what they want to do. They also need to know how their students learn and what is going to help them succeed in the classroom. Teachers need to find a balance between knowing their content and knowing how to teach their content.
As a class I found three common points that were talked about in the reflections. The first one is being able to find a balance between content knowledge, and connecting with your students. It is important that teachers be able to teach their content while also being able to relate to their students. Both concepts are very important and a successful teacher cannot have one without the other. One way to get to know the students better is by having them create something, such as a word cloud. This will allow insight into student’s interest and is fun and easy way to get to know students.
The second idea the class came to was understanding that there may be a reason why a student is struggling in a class, and it is our job as educators to explore what that may be and how we can help. Everyone has something going on in their life, but some students may have something major happen that distracts them from their school work. Perhaps an older sibling has moved out of the house, or a pet has died. Whatever it may be a teacher needs to address these problems and decide how best to help the student.
The third topic is that every student is different and it is important to embrace that uniqueness and help students achieve success in a way that is intriguing to them. A student can memorize facts, pass a test, and get an A, but does that mean they really learned anything or had any fun? Not usually. Every student is going to be different and it is a teacher’s responsibility to incorporate things into a lesson that will help students flourish. edutopiahas a great article for teachers that is full of resources for different things. Anything from classroom management and lesson plan to integrating technology and how to interact with parents. The websites provides wonderful ideas on how to address different needs of students, and also has many other resource links to learn more.
Sara
In chapter two of Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design, the main focus is about understanding students and what kind of supports they need in the classroom. Students come from all types of backgrounds and at any time may have something going on in their personal life. It is a teacher’s job to identify what supports a student may need and how they can help the student to get the most from the classroom. If a student is not doing well in class a teacher needs to investigate why that may be, and work with the student to help them achieve more. One of the biggest challenges I suspect I will face in my classroom is the mindset students come to the classroom with. With such a negative outlook on math, I will already have many challenges to overcome. I will have to identify what works best for students to learn and what I need to do to help students be successful. Keeping an open mind about learning styles is going to be key in this. In math it is very important that a student understands a concept before moving on to a new concept, because in a lot of cases one concept builds off of another. One thing I found in the book that I think will help with this is having a question at the end of class that students must answer to leave the classroom. This question will be directly related to our current work and will help me judge if I need to spend more time on concept with the whole class, or if I can move on. In any classroom identifying student needs and addressing them is essential to ensuring students learn what they need to from the classroom.
Cheyenne
The second chapter focuses solely on students and the differences between them, and understanding how to understand the individual students. There are a number of different reasons why students could be doing poorly in a class, and it is imperative that you as a teacher work with them to try and solve the problem. In some cases, it comes from outside sources, such as the student's home life or societal expectations placed upon them. These are harder to help with, as sometimes there is nothing that can be done due to the underlying problem being so extensive, but in some of these cases, just getting through to the student could be a stepping stone to helping them reattain success. In other cases, the barriers hindering success might be due to a learning disability or a mental or physical illness. In these cases, it’s important to try and figure out with the student how to overcome these barriers. It may take several different outlooks and attempts to work things out, but helping these students address and adapt to whatever might be giving them trouble is astronomical in helping them success not only in your class but in other classes, and perhaps other areas of their lives as well. One of the main things that I did take out of this, even though it was not really mentioned directly, is that sometimes, despite even the best efforts and intentions, somethings cannot be helped. In one of the examples given, a girl nearly purposefully fails her classes in the hopes that her newly separated parents will rejoin to address the problem. While it is imperative that teachers do everything they can to help with student achievement, it is also important to know that sometimes we will fail, despite our best efforts.
Lydia
I have learned that there are a variety of ways that a teacher must present their content. I have also learned that the way that a teacher presents their lesson will depend on the learning barriers a student has. Some of these barriers can include their interests, a learning disability, language, or even how much adult support a student must have. This will impact me and my classroom because I have to come up with a lesson every day that will help students connect with how they will learn. This will also impact me because each class I teach will be a learning experience. I must be able to teach in a style that makes each of my students comfortable to learn. This is more narrowed in on who the students are and what they need for learning. I have also learned that in order to reach all of my students’ needs I must learn to be a flexible teacher who can teach in a variety of ways. This will impact me because this is when I will have to get to know each student to find out what situations they are in both inside of school and outside of school. Getting to know the students will change the way that they are treated and in the end if I can find what works best for them in each of their learning situations I will be able to impact their life as well. To find the best way for the students to learn I will also have to teach in multiple ways and get feedback on what method each student enjoys the most.
Shane
This chapter impacts my life because it is all about understanding content as well as my students. Not all students will be covered in a specific curriculum, it is good to consider their needs, but it is a work in progress that needs to be addressed as things go on in the classroom. As a teacher we should adapt to help our students develop. As a teacher it is my job to know my content whether it be reading and re-reading so I can support and help my students or just getting good in a specific areas after time. You also need to understand the kids that you are dealing with and where they come from. This may be their autonomous needs and motivations in the classroom as well. As a teacher we are partly psychologist as well. We need to know our students and how they work before we can teach them. If you understand your content area really well, but can not convey it to your students then you will be that teacher people call really smart, but hate because you can’t help your students learn. If you know how to interact with your students really well, but have no idea about the content then you are more of a friend that they are going to get nothing out of. As a teacher we need to be a well balanced person or we fail our students. I really enjoyed gaining the insight about what it takes to have balance as a teacher so I can be successful and so can my students.
Cory
The greatest idea I got out of this chapter is that you need to have a balance between your ability to teach and your knowledge in a subject. Yes, it is possible for you to be very good in both, but this is not the case most of the time. But it is very detrimental if you only excel in one area. If you excel in your knowledge of a subject but can’t teach very well, then you know everything you need to, but you can’t articulate it well to your students. If you are like this, students can’t learn because they don’t understand the material the way you present it. If you have a very good ability to teach but lack the basic knowledge of the subject, then you have nothing for which you can offer your students academically. Yes, you will have the ability to make great relationships with them, but you will not be fulfilling your primary purpose as a teacher: actually teaching them. The other idea I found intriguing is that it suggests that you can’t address the needs of all your students during the beginning of a lesson plan, you must go address them along the way. There is some truth to this. You should make a general lesson plan that aims to help put the most amount of different learners, but it’s hard to hit all of them. Instead of stressing about that, you should try and help them on the fly when a problem occurs. It’s like what professor Theresa told us, class rooms are like improv theater; you need to be able to think and act on your toes.
Laura
The biggest take-away point that I got from this chapter is that it is important to be flexible and adaptable as a teacher. Otherwise, it will be much more difficult to meet the many varying needs of your students. The chapter also made it clear that you can’t always rely on one particular “plan” when it comes to helping a student; you must be open to having a Plan B, Plan C, and so on, as demonstrated in the section about Yana (14). Likewise, teaching requires a great deal of patience. I will have to constantly remind myself that it’s okay if I don’t “get through” to a student immediately, and that just as we expect the students to learn from us as teachers, we also have a lot to learn from them when it comes to their individual learning styles, interests, strengths, weaknesses, personalities, home lives, etc. and that it will take time and dedication to the student in order for us to gain a full understanding of how they best function and what they need from us as educators. I also felt that a lot of what was discussed in this chapter ties into what we’ve been reading and discussing in Dr. Theresa’s course on classroom management. For example, in the story about Noah (15) we learn that he is a kinesthetic learner and that he learns best when he is able to move around. The reading we did for Dr. Theresa (from Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers) gave the impression that classroom rules and regulations should be directly stated and enforced with little room for compromise or exceptions. I don’t think that this idea correlates very well with what this chapter is emphasizing, which is the teacher adapting the differing needs of his or her students as opposed to the students adapting to a strict set of rules.
Sarah
Central to teaching is what we as teachers ought to teach, meaning what we want students to know, understand, and be able to do. The second element that is central to teaching is who we teach. The two elements that are central to teaching means that as a teacher students should be what I am thinking of first when I am make, implement, and reflect on my professional plans. I learned that students come to the classroom to make sense of the world and of their place in the world. They also come looking for affirmation, partnership, accomplishment, and freedom. Because students are looking for freedom, I learned that students are better learners when their way of learning is accepted. This is important for me to include in my classroom. By allowing students to have freedom and allowing them to learn in their own way, I can fulfill the needs of my students. I learned that it is a teacher’s job to make the link between the basic needs of students and the curriculum. By allowing students to learn the material in their own way, I am making the link between the curriculum and the students’ need of freedom. In this chapter I learned about responsive teaching and how it means that a teacher is attuned to a students varied learning needs as much as the requirements of the curriculum. Teachers can benefit more students by implementing patterns of instruction that serve multiple needs. One way I can do this in my classroom is by teaching in multiple ways and by giving students the option to work alone or work in pairs.
Rhi
One of my biggest concerns about being a teacher is dealing with situations that happen outside of my classroom. In chapter 2, it starts off by talking about students who have “barriers” or things that distract them or others from learning. It brings up a student who has a hard time getting work done and paying attention in class because her parents got a divorce at the beginning of the school year. Another student does great work in the classroom and contributes in class discussion, but when it comes to getting homework done he rarely completes it or turns it in late because of his commitments outside of school to sports. I foresee it being difficult to make sure all of the students are getting the help and attention they need. Something I wonder is how much guidance counselors converse with teachers about students and how much time there is to talk and get to know students individually during the school day. It’s an important part of me and I hope for it to be a focus in my classroom on really knowing my students and having them know each other. It will be important in the field of health that students are comfortable with the teacher and each other because whether it be sex education or in a gym class, these topics can be nerve racking for some students and as the teacher I want to do everything I can to make them all feel welcome and involved.
Dominick
After reading this chapter I realized that to be a good teacher we must truly connect with each student. There is no one size fits all. Every student is different, so we as future educators must strive to make connecting with our students a top priority. If we do not then we cannot be considered efficient teachers. We must connect with these students by using multiple medias to teach them. If a teacher can manage to do this then they will be successful in teaching all of their different students. Obviously, the second most important piece to this is understanding your content. In order to convey the knowledge to these students teachers must be well versed in their content area. They must be able to answer any question their students pose to them about what they are teaching. The key to being a great teacher is finding a balance among these two extremely important areas. Managing to make a connection with all of the different types of students is probably slightly more important out of the two in my opinion because without that connection not all students will understand what you are teaching. However, a teacher cannot have one without the other. Being knowledgeable in your subject area makes the teachers job far easier and more pleasurable for the students. Finding the balance between these two pieces is vital to being a successful educator. As a future educator I will strive to find this balance and one day I will manage to obtain this goal.
Cooper
In teaching it is important to balance an effective understanding of your content with an effective understanding of your students. The multiplicity of students learning needs may not be immediately addressed when formulating a curriculum no matter how many strategies are employed. For this reason it is important to be engaged and invested in your students learning rather than focusing entirely on planning, of course the deeper the understanding you have of your content the more likely you are to have a strategy to engage a struggling learner readily available. I firmly believe this balance is key to becoming an effective teacher. When I have encountered teachers who have one of these traits but lack the other it becomes increasingly evident. I have encountered teachers who have masterful understanding of their subject matter and are truly brilliant in that area but lack the ability to engage a classroom and that knowledge often falls on deaf ears. Conversely I have had teachers who have great relationships with their students but lacked any passion or interest for their subject matter and while the students were engaged and enjoying the classroom experience they often didn’t learn anything. When you find a teacher who is passionate about his or her material and passionate about their students learning, the classroom dynamic is changed drastically. A sense of affirmation and autonomy in the student I believe is key to motivating some of the more unmotivated students. When students feel that a teacher is genuinely concerned for their learning their interest in their learning will rise with it.
Katelin
I learned that teaching is really about the students. Successful learning is how teaching is judged, so it is very important to try to adapt to all students and how to teach, not just what you are teaching. Plans are always going to change, especially in math. I might have what I think is a great lesson planned out and if I feel people are not understanding, I might have to spend longer and adapt. If a student seems like they are not learning, I know I will have to keep trying different ways to help them and figure out what is the best way that works for them, as we know not everyone learns the same. There are multiple ways to solve a problem, especially in math, so if a student solves something a different way, I should encourage it. A student will learn when they are interested in what I am teaching and they will value me as a teacher if i try to work with them and not shut them out because they aren’t like me. I also need to check in regularly with students to see where they are at and setting small goals and rubrics with them I learned will be important. Learning is not something that is to the students, but it is within the person, and not every person is the same. “Bad” students aren’t really bad, they just need a little different way to see something and that person is going to be me. I can change a life by just trying to work with them and trying to give them the opportunity to learn like the other students.
Table of Contents
Abstract and Synthesis- Sara
The main focus of chapter two in Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, is that it is imperative that teachers take an interest in the students. They need to understand where they are coming from, where they are going, and how they can get there. Teachers need to know background about students and understand what their home life is like. They need to know what interest’s students have and what they want to do. They also need to know how their students learn and what is going to help them succeed in the classroom. Teachers need to find a balance between knowing their content and knowing how to teach their content.
As a class I found three common points that were talked about in the reflections. The first one is being able to find a balance between content knowledge, and connecting with your students. It is important that teachers be able to teach their content while also being able to relate to their students. Both concepts are very important and a successful teacher cannot have one without the other. One way to get to know the students better is by having them create something, such as a word cloud. This will allow insight into student’s interest and is fun and easy way to get to know students.
The second idea the class came to was understanding that there may be a reason why a student is struggling in a class, and it is our job as educators to explore what that may be and how we can help. Everyone has something going on in their life, but some students may have something major happen that distracts them from their school work. Perhaps an older sibling has moved out of the house, or a pet has died. Whatever it may be a teacher needs to address these problems and decide how best to help the student.
The third topic is that every student is different and it is important to embrace that uniqueness and help students achieve success in a way that is intriguing to them. A student can memorize facts, pass a test, and get an A, but does that mean they really learned anything or had any fun? Not usually. Every student is going to be different and it is a teacher’s responsibility to incorporate things into a lesson that will help students flourish. edutopiahas a great article for teachers that is full of resources for different things. Anything from classroom management and lesson plan to integrating technology and how to interact with parents. The websites provides wonderful ideas on how to address different needs of students, and also has many other resource links to learn more.
Sara
In chapter two of Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design, the main focus is about understanding students and what kind of supports they need in the classroom. Students come from all types of backgrounds and at any time may have something going on in their personal life. It is a teacher’s job to identify what supports a student may need and how they can help the student to get the most from the classroom. If a student is not doing well in class a teacher needs to investigate why that may be, and work with the student to help them achieve more.One of the biggest challenges I suspect I will face in my classroom is the mindset students come to the classroom with. With such a negative outlook on math, I will already have many challenges to overcome. I will have to identify what works best for students to learn and what I need to do to help students be successful. Keeping an open mind about learning styles is going to be key in this. In math it is very important that a student understands a concept before moving on to a new concept, because in a lot of cases one concept builds off of another. One thing I found in the book that I think will help with this is having a question at the end of class that students must answer to leave the classroom. This question will be directly related to our current work and will help me judge if I need to spend more time on concept with the whole class, or if I can move on.
In any classroom identifying student needs and addressing them is essential to ensuring students learn what they need to from the classroom.
Cheyenne
The second chapter focuses solely on students and the differences between them, and understanding how to understand the individual students. There are a number of different reasons why students could be doing poorly in a class, and it is imperative that you as a teacher work with them to try and solve the problem. In some cases, it comes from outside sources, such as the student's home life or societal expectations placed upon them. These are harder to help with, as sometimes there is nothing that can be done due to the underlying problem being so extensive, but in some of these cases, just getting through to the student could be a stepping stone to helping them reattain success. In other cases, the barriers hindering success might be due to a learning disability or a mental or physical illness. In these cases, it’s important to try and figure out with the student how to overcome these barriers. It may take several different outlooks and attempts to work things out, but helping these students address and adapt to whatever might be giving them trouble is astronomical in helping them success not only in your class but in other classes, and perhaps other areas of their lives as well.
One of the main things that I did take out of this, even though it was not really mentioned directly, is that sometimes, despite even the best efforts and intentions, somethings cannot be helped. In one of the examples given, a girl nearly purposefully fails her classes in the hopes that her newly separated parents will rejoin to address the problem. While it is imperative that teachers do everything they can to help with student achievement, it is also important to know that sometimes we will fail, despite our best efforts.
Lydia
I have learned that there are a variety of ways that a teacher must present their content. I have also learned that the way that a teacher presents their lesson will depend on the learning barriers a student has. Some of these barriers can include their interests, a learning disability, language, or even how much adult support a student must have. This will impact me and my classroom because I have to come up with a lesson every day that will help students connect with how they will learn. This will also impact me because each class I teach will be a learning experience. I must be able to teach in a style that makes each of my students comfortable to learn. This is more narrowed in on who the students are and what they need for learning.I have also learned that in order to reach all of my students’ needs I must learn to be a flexible teacher who can teach in a variety of ways. This will impact me because this is when I will have to get to know each student to find out what situations they are in both inside of school and outside of school. Getting to know the students will change the way that they are treated and in the end if I can find what works best for them in each of their learning situations I will be able to impact their life as well. To find the best way for the students to learn I will also have to teach in multiple ways and get feedback on what method each student enjoys the most.
Shane
This chapter impacts my life because it is all about understanding content as well as my students. Not all students will be covered in a specific curriculum, it is good to consider their needs, but it is a work in progress that needs to be addressed as things go on in the classroom. As a teacher we should adapt to help our students develop. As a teacher it is my job to know my content whether it be reading and re-reading so I can support and help my students or just getting good in a specific areas after time. You also need to understand the kids that you are dealing with and where they come from. This may be their autonomous needs and motivations in the classroom as well. As a teacher we are partly psychologist as well. We need to know our students and how they work before we can teach them. If you understand your content area really well, but can not convey it to your students then you will be that teacher people call really smart, but hate because you can’t help your students learn. If you know how to interact with your students really well, but have no idea about the content then you are more of a friend that they are going to get nothing out of. As a teacher we need to be a well balanced person or we fail our students. I really enjoyed gaining the insight about what it takes to have balance as a teacher so I can be successful and so can my students.Cory
The greatest idea I got out of this chapter is that you need to have a balance between your ability to teach and your knowledge in a subject. Yes, it is possible for you to be very good in both, but this is not the case most of the time. But it is very detrimental if you only excel in one area. If you excel in your knowledge of a subject but can’t teach very well, then you know everything you need to, but you can’t articulate it well to your students. If you are like this, students can’t learn because they don’t understand the material the way you present it. If you have a very good ability to teach but lack the basic knowledge of the subject, then you have nothing for which you can offer your students academically. Yes, you will have the ability to make great relationships with them, but you will not be fulfilling your primary purpose as a teacher: actually teaching them. The other idea I found intriguing is that it suggests that you can’t address the needs of all your students during the beginning of a lesson plan, you must go address them along the way. There is some truth to this. You should make a general lesson plan that aims to help put the most amount of different learners, but it’s hard to hit all of them. Instead of stressing about that, you should try and help them on the fly when a problem occurs. It’s like what professor Theresa told us, class rooms are like improv theater; you need to be able to think and act on your toes.Laura
The biggest take-away point that I got from this chapter is that it is important to be flexible and adaptable as a teacher. Otherwise, it will be much more difficult to meet the many varying needs of your students. The chapter also made it clear that you can’t always rely on one particular “plan” when it comes to helping a student; you must be open to having a Plan B, Plan C, and so on, as demonstrated in the section about Yana (14). Likewise, teaching requires a great deal of patience. I will have to constantly remind myself that it’s okay if I don’t “get through” to a student immediately, and that just as we expect the students to learn from us as teachers, we also have a lot to learn from them when it comes to their individual learning styles, interests, strengths, weaknesses, personalities, home lives, etc. and that it will take time and dedication to the student in order for us to gain a full understanding of how they best function and what they need from us as educators. I also felt that a lot of what was discussed in this chapter ties into what we’ve been reading and discussing in Dr. Theresa’s course on classroom management. For example, in the story about Noah (15) we learn that he is a kinesthetic learner and that he learns best when he is able to move around. The reading we did for Dr. Theresa (from Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers) gave the impression that classroom rules and regulations should be directly stated and enforced with little room for compromise or exceptions. I don’t think that this idea correlates very well with what this chapter is emphasizing, which is the teacher adapting the differing needs of his or her students as opposed to the students adapting to a strict set of rules.Sarah
Central to teaching is what we as teachers ought to teach, meaning what we want students to know, understand, and be able to do. The second element that is central to teaching is who we teach. The two elements that are central to teaching means that as a teacher students should be what I am thinking of first when I am make, implement, and reflect on my professional plans. I learned that students come to the classroom to make sense of the world and of their place in the world. They also come looking for affirmation, partnership, accomplishment, and freedom. Because students are looking for freedom, I learned that students are better learners when their way of learning is accepted. This is important for me to include in my classroom. By allowing students to have freedom and allowing them to learn in their own way, I can fulfill the needs of my students. I learned that it is a teacher’s job to make the link between the basic needs of students and the curriculum. By allowing students to learn the material in their own way, I am making the link between the curriculum and the students’ need of freedom. In this chapter I learned about responsive teaching and how it means that a teacher is attuned to a students varied learning needs as much as the requirements of the curriculum. Teachers can benefit more students by implementing patterns of instruction that serve multiple needs. One way I can do this in my classroom is by teaching in multiple ways and by giving students the option to work alone or work in pairs.Rhi
One of my biggest concerns about being a teacher is dealing with situations that happen outside of my classroom. In chapter 2, it starts off by talking about students who have “barriers” or things that distract them or others from learning. It brings up a student who has a hard time getting work done and paying attention in class because her parents got a divorce at the beginning of the school year. Another student does great work in the classroom and contributes in class discussion, but when it comes to getting homework done he rarely completes it or turns it in late because of his commitments outside of school to sports. I foresee it being difficult to make sure all of the students are getting the help and attention they need. Something I wonder is how much guidance counselors converse with teachers about students and how much time there is to talk and get to know students individually during the school day. It’s an important part of me and I hope for it to be a focus in my classroom on really knowing my students and having them know each other. It will be important in the field of health that students are comfortable with the teacher and each other because whether it be sex education or in a gym class, these topics can be nerve racking for some students and as the teacher I want to do everything I can to make them all feel welcome and involved.Dominick
After reading this chapter I realized that to be a good teacher we must truly connect with each student. There is no one size fits all. Every student is different, so we as future educators must strive to make connecting with our students a top priority. If we do not then we cannot be considered efficient teachers. We must connect with these students by using multiple medias to teach them. If a teacher can manage to do this then they will be successful in teaching all of their different students. Obviously, the second most important piece to this is understanding your content. In order to convey the knowledge to these students teachers must be well versed in their content area. They must be able to answer any question their students pose to them about what they are teaching. The key to being a great teacher is finding a balance among these two extremely important areas. Managing to make a connection with all of the different types of students is probably slightly more important out of the two in my opinion because without that connection not all students will understand what you are teaching. However, a teacher cannot have one without the other. Being knowledgeable in your subject area makes the teachers job far easier and more pleasurable for the students. Finding the balance between these two pieces is vital to being a successful educator. As a future educator I will strive to find this balance and one day I will manage to obtain this goal.
Cooper
In teaching it is important to balance an effective understanding of your content with an effective understanding of your students. The multiplicity of students learning needs may not be immediately addressed when formulating a curriculum no matter how many strategies are employed. For this reason it is important to be engaged and invested in your students learning rather than focusing entirely on planning, of course the deeper the understanding you have of your content the more likely you are to have a strategy to engage a struggling learner readily available. I firmly believe this balance is key to becoming an effective teacher. When I have encountered teachers who have one of these traits but lack the other it becomes increasingly evident. I have encountered teachers who have masterful understanding of their subject matter and are truly brilliant in that area but lack the ability to engage a classroom and that knowledge often falls on deaf ears. Conversely I have had teachers who have great relationships with their students but lacked any passion or interest for their subject matter and while the students were engaged and enjoying the classroom experience they often didn’t learn anything. When you find a teacher who is passionate about his or her material and passionate about their students learning, the classroom dynamic is changed drastically. A sense of affirmation and autonomy in the student I believe is key to motivating some of the more unmotivated students. When students feel that a teacher is genuinely concerned for their learning their interest in their learning will rise with it.Katelin
I learned that teaching is really about the students. Successful learning is how teaching is judged, so it is very important to try to adapt to all students and how to teach, not just what you are teaching. Plans are always going to change, especially in math. I might have what I think is a great lesson planned out and if I feel people are not understanding, I might have to spend longer and adapt. If a student seems like they are not learning, I know I will have to keep trying different ways to help them and figure out what is the best way that works for them, as we know not everyone learns the same. There are multiple ways to solve a problem, especially in math, so if a student solves something a different way, I should encourage it. A student will learn when they are interested in what I am teaching and they will value me as a teacher if i try to work with them and not shut them out because they aren’t like me. I also need to check in regularly with students to see where they are at and setting small goals and rubrics with them I learned will be important. Learning is not something that is to the students, but it is within the person, and not every person is the same. “Bad” students aren’t really bad, they just need a little different way to see something and that person is going to be me. I can change a life by just trying to work with them and trying to give them the opportunity to learn like the other students.